Letters to the Editor for September 7, 2017

Overhaul tax code to help middle class

To the Editor:

Schooled by donor-lobbyists, Congress will soon bombast us with how we must pass tax cuts for the wealthy to create job growth. But, it has now been explicitly proven tax cuts to the wealthy do not trickle down into job growth. One example, AT&T paid only 8 percent taxes in the past seven years. Instead of using the excessive profits for hiring and putting money into research and development, they bought back their own stock to artificially inflate it, pleasing executives/shareholders. In that same time? They reduced workforce by 80,000. No job growth there.

We’re told corporations pay 35 percent in taxes. Truth is they pay only 0 to 10 percent by brilliantly working the tax codes. All legal, but no job growth there.

Ponder this: Lowering taxes on wealthy corporations has a negative impact on job growth. Raising taxes on them increases job growth. Why? Corporations will pay employees more, hire more and put more into infrastructure when the alternative is to pay taxes. Hence the phenomenal growth of the mid-20th century.

We need a tax overhaul. But can we trust Congress to do the intelligent deep thinking this requires? Can we trust them to be fair to the middle class? What is that grasping noise we hear from D.C.? It’s the donor-lobbyist-puppeteers, filling Congressional ears with their sound bites. We will soon be hearing those rehearsed sound bites from Congress. Instead let us educate ourselves to protect ourselves.